Countdown for IRNSS 1C launch from Monday

Chennai: The countdown for the launch of India's navigation satellite IRNSS 1C, the third of seven satellites in the series to put in place India's navigation system on par with US' Global Positioning System, on board PSLV C 26 will commence at the spaceport of Sriharikota on Monday.

The earlier planned launch on October six was postponed following a technical problem.

"The 67-hour countdown for the mission will commence at 0632 hrs IST on October 13," ISRO said.

IRNSS 1C with a lift-off mass of 1,425.4 kg would be launched on the 28th flight of India's PSLV-C26 from the Satish Dhawan Space Centre at Sriharikota, some 100 km from here. Like the launch of similar missions of IRNSS 1A and IRNSS 1B earlier, this mission would be launched on the XL version of the PSLV.

As part of its aspirations to build a regional navigational system equivalent to Global Positioning System of the US, ISRO plans to send seven satellites to put in place the Indian Regional Navigational Satellite System (IRNSS).

The first two satellites in the series, IRNSS 1A and IRNSS 1B were launched from Sriharikota on July 1, 2013 and April 4 this year respectively.

ISRO needs to launch at least four of the seven satellites to start operations of IRNSS, ISRO officials said.

IRNSS is similar to US' Global Positioning System, Russia's Glonass and Europe's Galileo. China and Japan also have similar systems, 'Beidou' and 'Quasi Zenith.'